Why Lily Potter's Brothers Aren't Boys
by bleviee
Summary: Sequel to "Why James Potter's Sister Isn't a Girl." This is what happens when Al and James get to the Astronomy Tower and their brokenhearted sister.  Brother/sister fluff, and you don't have to read WJPSIAG to understand this one, not really.


**Author's note**: Sequel to "_Why James Potter's Sister Isn't a Girl." _This is a continuation of that story, so if you haven't read it, you should check it out, but to sum up, because it wasn't exactly a winding and complex plot: James and Al find out that there's major trouble in Lily's relationship and she's upset, so they go looking for their little sister. James is a Gryffindor in sixth year, Al is a Slytherin in fifth, and Lily is a third-year Ravenclaw. There's another A/N at the bottom, by the way.

**Disclaimer:** None of this belongs to me or is for profit. Everything you recognize is from the brilliant mind of JK Rowling, and the names come from a website. Not even how awesome James and Al are belong to me, that honor belongs to my wonderful little brother, who sprawled out on top of me when he was four and I was eighteen and heartbroken to declare that all boys were dumb and I just needed cuddles.

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><p>James wordlessly dumps the food he's carrying into his brother's arms and pushes open the door to the Astronomy Tower. He walks through the classroom and out onto the observatory deck. When he gets to the observation deck, he circles it, searching for his sister. He finds her curled up, crying. Merlin, this is really really bad, so he doesn't say anything, just hoists her up and carries her to Al.<p>

"I'm okay, Jamie."

"Lilybit, okay doesn't cry like you're crying."

"I don't want to talk about it…and I don't want to eat, Al." She says the last as James puts her down and she sees the food Al has spread out on a desk.

"Okay, we won't. Make you talk about it or make you eat. Just sit with us." James sits down, leaning against the castle wall, and Al follows suit. They both reach up and grab one of her wrists, pulling her down to sit partially on James's lap and partially on Al's. At home, James and Al will lay side by side and Lily will sprawl overtop of both of them, but that's not feasible on a stone deck. They're getting too old for his, Uncle Percy has said, for how they lounged constantly as children, but sometimes they need the physical comfort of each others' touch. They don't do this often anymore, just because Lily might be small but she's muscular and therefore not exactly light and both boys are lean (James is borderline bony, even) and it's not that comfortable anymore. But when they need comfort, when Dad had been in the hospital during Al's second year or last year when Al had finally come out, so proud of who he was but utterly terrified it would change their relationship, they reverted back to those nights when they'd all pile up in Lily's bed and tell stories and secrets and they'd only ever needed each other.

Lily tucks in now, burying her head in the gap between her brothers' heads, letting more tears fall. James and Al do their best to look at each other, and Al nudges James with his foot-okay, James can start.

"All men suck, baby, it's why I'm straight," he says, wrapping his arm around to rub his sister's back. Al's clearly not expecting that, of all things, and bursts out laughing, jiggling Lily a bit. She doesn't stop crying, but the snuffling sounds slow, so James continues to rub the part of her back he can reach, glad when he feels Al's hand brush near his, indicating he's doing the same on the other side. Lily's an insanely physical person, constantly hugging or cuddling or just sort of burrowing into someone's side.

"You two don't suck."

"We're not men, we're your brothers. Brothers are better than men. Just like you're better than any smelly old cootie girl." Al says matter-of-factly, and when Lily _still _doesn't stop crying, James knows this isn't something an extra bit of chocolate will fix, Lily's really upset. So he puts the tiniest of pressures on her back to make her talk.

"It's not him I'm crying about." Lily's words are muffled by her tears and their shoulders, so it sounds more like "snotem mm'crien 'bout" but James catches her meaning.

"What do you mean, it's not him? You had a fight with your boyfriend, we know that from Hugo and Rose, and then he was alone in his room with another girl, we know that from the map, and presumably the fight broke you up and … oh my God, Lily, he was cheating on you, wasn't he, sweetheart?" James doesn't know _how _he knows, just that he _does, _the same way he knew to go into her room at night when they were little and she had nightmares. Lily sobs and nods her head, hurting his shoulder but he didn't care, because this is his sister, his sweet baby sister who yesterday couldn't tie her shoes or say his name around her missing front teeth, and today he finds out that Cory Kaminski, _that bastard, _was pressuring her to sleep with him or at least do more than just kiss and the whole time sleeping with some other girl, some random girl-but what if she wasn't random at all? _It's not him,_ Lily had said, but if she wasn't crying over the boy who cheated on her, then that only leaves-

"Al, what was the name of the girl you saw with Cory on the map last night?" James demands, but Al has frozen with the knowledge that Cory had been cheating, and oh, no, this is bad, because Al was shaking his head and wouldn't say, squeezing Lily in tight and close instead, and James could only hope, wish, pray that Lily wasn't about to say what she was about to say.

"He was with Mia," Lily whispered, and James felt his heart break for her. Mia, her roommate, her best friend, _of course not counting you and Al, don't be silly, Jamie, _the girl that James had never quite trusted, but had always pretended to for Lily's sake, and he couldn't _imagine _that pain, how he'd feel if suddenly the two people that mattered most to him outside of his family weren't there anymore because of a choice they made and he was too ashamed even to tell these two, the other pieces of his heart, and _oh, Lily. _

There's nothing that he can say or do to help her that wouldn't be a lie, and he doesn't lie to them, _they don't lie to each other, ever ever,_ so he and Al just sit there and hold on to Lily until she stops crying and sits up to eat, not moving off their laps but just adjusting her weight. And after they eat, James leans against the wall-only to put his hand in something disgusting and slippery. Knowing what happens up here some nights, he freaks out a bit, _not _"squealing like a girl," thank you Al, but understandably grossed out that he's put his hand into something mysteriously oily while in the school's very own Lover's Lane, until finally Al reaches over Lily to grab his hand and sniff it. "Calm down, Jamie, it's not lube."

"How do you know what lube smells like, baby brother? You're only sixteen, you don't need to know that. It's not on your OWLs, I can assure you."

"It smells like motor oil, Jamie. Probably from some Muggle studies project. It doesn't take a back alley whore to know that if something smells like it's designed for an engine, it's not the type of lubricant designed for the genital area, common sense can tell you that."

Al had made this declaration firmly, borderline loudly, so it's all too easy to announce, "Hey, Professor Longbottom!" and watch Al uproot Lily as he whips around to search for the professor that he won't admit to having a little crush on, glaring at James when no one is there. And then it hits James how _unfair_ it is, that even though Al, two whole years older than Lily, is still innocent enough to crush adorably on a professor, Lily's heart is shattered and it's all because of the respect she has for herself, and the trust she had in her best friend. But then she giggles at the look on Al's face, and her giggles turn into full-on laughter, and even when she quits giggling her big brown eyes look a little less sad and she's _finally _smiling.

And when James thinks of the smile that would be on Mary's face if he'd left this to Al, he knows which one is more important. So he pulls Lily to her feet with a firm, "Come _on, _Lilyflower!" declaring that they 'need rather desperately' to go visit Hagrid, and she seems much more okay than she'd been two hours ago. He actually does need to see Hagrid-after all, he needs to replace his allotment of motor oil for his Muggle Studies project, since he's poured it onto the deck while they ate breakfast. It's going to take some explaining, possibly even the Galleons his parents had sent him for this Hogsmeade weekend, but Lily is smiling so everything that happened this morning is more than worth it, even hearing his baby brother talk about lube.

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><p>A lot of you guys that reviewed WJPSIAG said that you couldn't find a lot of good big brother!James. Well, if you take recommendations, I'd highly recommend "Outside the Touch of Time" by KJmom, a one-shot with James and Al the night before James leaves for his first year of Hogwarts. In fact, that story helped me over my hump with this one-I'd been sitting on this story up till the Mia reveal for over a week, but couldn't figure out how to end it, but then that one-shot inspired the idea of an AlJames moment. The thing with the oil actually happened to me, only I was with my mom, it was chicken grease, and I didn't do it on purpose. But seriously, guys, she's awesome, go show her some love.


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